One of the biggest disruptions the coronavirus pandemic has caused is record-high unemployment in the Garden State, and next year, it will hit employers hard financially unless lawmakers do something about it. The process of doing something about it begins Thursday. The Senate Labor Committee is scheduled to address the unemployment insurance (UI) fund, which […]
Pandemic Could Lead to Bigger Healthcare Cost Increases in 2021
While the pandemic drove a significant decrease in the use of healthcare services in 2020, employer healthcare benefit costs in 2021 are likely to increase above and beyond non-pandemic projections as care deferred in 2020 is pushed into the future, according to a new Willis Towers Watson analysis of medical claims and the potential impact […]
New FAQs on Reporting Work-Related COVID-19 Cases
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published additional frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) regarding the need to report employees’ in-patient hospitalizations and fatalities resulting from work-related cases of the coronavirus. OSHA’s new FAQs provide information to help employers apply the agency’s existing injury and illness recording and reporting requirements to […]
Social Security and Unemployment: What You Should Know
Social Security benefits have taken on a new importance during the pandemic, particularly when it comes to workers in their sixties who have been affected by the record-high unemployment. Rather than trying to find a job in this environment at, say, age 63, some may elect to retire early. Ash Ahluwalia, head of Social Security […]
NJBIA Statement on Revised FY2021 State Budget
NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka issued the following statement regarding the revised FY2021 State Budget signed today by Gov. Phil Murphy. “Now that Governor Murphy has put ink to the page of a budget that will do great damage to New Jersey businesses and taxpayers, we hope that he and our policymakers will work on […]